In this his­tor­i­cal piece, Late Jus­tice Ajit Singh Bains dwells on the yearn­ing for jus­tice, call­ing it one of the biggest con­cerns of hu­mankind through the ages.  He says, “Of all the things which man seeks, jus­tice ranks among the first. The ques­tion of so­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion, the prob­lem of state and pol­i­tics, all comes down to the ques­tion of re­solv­ing con­flicts among so­ci­ety fairly and justly. All sys­tems of Gov­ern­ment and or­ga­ni­za­tion of so­ci­eties have tried to set up the ma­chin­ery of jus­tice that will be fair to all.”

TO PRO­VIDE JUS­TICE IS THE FIRST TASK OF THE ANY GOV­ERN­MENT.  This is the dif­fer­ence be­tween a rob­ber state and a good state. Saint Au­gus­tine says it all when he de­clares,  “what are great king­doms but great rob­beries if jus­tice is taken away from them.”

Sys­tems of Gov­ern­ment are con­stantly evolv­ing to set up more and more re­spon­sive ma­chin­ery of state so that the weak­est among its mem­bers can get jus­tice. To give each his due is what every­body wants. Com­mu­nist phi­los­o­phy grew out of the in­jus­tice of its age and in turn, is be­ing swept away be­cause of its fail­ure to dis­pense jus­tice. Some peo­ple in their coun­tries be­came more equal than oth­ers and jus­tice was choked.

In­dia to­day, is fac­ing wide­spread re­bel­lion and armed in­sur­gency. From Nax­alite mil­i­tancy to re­li­gion-in­spired armed strug­gle. One thing is com­mon in all dis­turbed ar­eas, jus­tice is not avail­able there.

The only rea­son for the state and the ruler to ex­ist is to give jus­tice to its peo­ple. Oth­er­wise, an­ar­chy en­sues. When the state is un­able to pro­vide jus­tice, peo­ple de­vise their own mech­a­nism apart from the es­tab­lished state to do jus­tice.

It is time we lis­ten to Emer­son – “If the gov­ern­ment is cruel the gov­er­nor’s life is not safe. If you tax too high, the rev­enue will yield noth­ing. if you make the crim­i­nal code san­guinary. the ju­ries will not con­vict. Noth­ing ar­bi­trary, noth­ing ar­ti­fi­cial can en­dure. “If tribal peo­ple came un­der the in­flu­ences of armed Nax­alites, it is be­cause in those ar­eas the Nax­alites are the only peo­ple who can dare to dis­pense jus­tice to them. How­so­ever odd it may ap­pear to a per­son in New Delhi, that’s why should some young man choose the gun and live a short life, it is true that the search for jus­tice is eter­nal in the heart of man. There is a flame in the heart of man which wants to give jus­tice.

The in­spired peo­ple of all re­li­gions, of all com­mu­ni­ties, of all times, have en­deav­oured within their means to give jus­tice.

It fol­lows that the ma­chin­ery of jus­tice must never be choked. Gov­ern­ments who sup­press peace­ful protests, do so at their peril. Gov­ern­ments who do noth­ing will even­tu­ally face an al­ter­na­tive mode of jus­tice, more swift and harsh.

The at­ten­tion of In­dia has been on Pun­jab. Why should Pun­jab, wit­ness mil­i­tancy when it is a land of plenty? Jus­tice has noth­ing to do with plenty or poverty. Jus­tice is a bal­ance be­tween what ought to be and what is. The en­deav­our to re­dress a wrong is jus­tice. There­fore, in all so­ci­eties, whether they are rich or poor, the bal­ance is re­stored by a just king, by a just state or by a just par­lia­ment.

Why should Pun­jab, wit­ness mil­i­tancy when it is a land of plenty? Jus­tice has noth­ing to do with plenty or poverty. Jus­tice is a bal­ance be­tween what ought to be and what is. The en­deav­our to re­dress a wrong is jus­tice. There­fore, in all so­ci­eties, whether they are rich or poor, the bal­ance is re­stored by a just king, by a just state or by a just par­lia­ment.

In Pun­jab to­day, and not to­day, but a decade ago, jus­tice was de­clin­ing.  For the peo­ple at the last lad­der of so­ci­ety, jus­tice is dis­pensed by the po­lice­man, and by the rev­enue of­fi­cials. Jus­tice in the past years kept on de­creas­ing and the mil­i­tants kept on in­creas­ing.

The Nax­alite move­ment in Pun­jab in 1968 was a symp­tom, which shouted and shrieked that in this land, in­jus­tice is wide­spread. Peo­ple who flock to po­lit­i­cal lead­ers do not say that they are against a par­tic­u­lar com­mu­nity or par­tic­u­lar re­li­gion, or they want an­other coun­try, but they come with the cry that jus­tice has not been given to them.

A fa­ther’s son is shot be­fore his eyes on mere sus­pi­cion by a cal­lous po­lice of­fi­cer, and the state does noth­ing. The state be­lieves only the po­lice of­fi­cials and the states do not in­ter­vene to set the bal­ance right. Then the law of na­ture comes into play. Pri­vate vengeance takes over.

If any­one has doubt about the laws of na­ture he should go and study Emer­son’s es­say on com­pen­sa­tion. If the king is cruel, pri­vate vengeance takes over and the king’s life is no longer safe. If there are no courts, peo­ple dis­pense their own jus­tice. If you re­cruit po­lice­men by favouritism, then your own guard is in­com­pe­tent and fails to pro­tect you. If to­day you ap­point cor­rupt per­sons as judges, to­mor­row, your own case shall be de­cided on fac­tors other than merit.

The case of Pun­jab is that one po­lit­i­cal party tries to dis­lodge an­other party from in­flu­ence, with the re­sult that be­fore that other po­lit­i­cal party can go out of in­flu­ence, it it­self goes out of cir­cu­la­tion. Every ac­tor in the drama of Pun­jab has re­ceived his dues.

There­fore, each man is to be on the alert, as in short-sight­ed­ness if he tries to be un­just, the cir­cle will be com­plete and the fire which he ig­nited shall en­gulf him. The case of Pun­jab is that one po­lit­i­cal party tries to dis­lodge an­other party from in­flu­ence, with the re­sult that be­fore that other po­lit­i­cal party can go out of in­flu­ence, it it­self goes out of cir­cu­la­tion. Every ac­tor in the drama of Pun­jab has re­ceived his dues.

The dues have been re­ceived in bul­lets and blood. In Pun­jab, no in­no­cent is killed, all guilty ones are elim­i­nated from ei­ther side.

Even in to­day’s Pun­jab, the ques­tion is the same: the quest for jus­tice. The means for seek­ing jus­tice have changed, but the urge re­mains the same. It is im­per­a­tive that the In­dian Gov­ern­ment pro­vide jus­tice and every other prob­lem will die its own death. Pun­jab’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is sim­ply not func­tion­ing.

It’s im­por­tant to rec­og­nize that tra­di­tion­ally in Pun­jab the po­lice is a ve­hi­cle of in­jus­tice and cor­rup­tion.

This ar­ti­cle was pub­lished in The Sikh Re­view in Oc­to­ber 1993. This ar­ti­cle was re­trieved from the archives of the Pan­jab Dig­i­tal Li­brary.

The peo­ple in Pun­jab be­gin their day with the Ar­das which re­minds them of peo­ple who have died fight­ing in­jus­tice. Here there are peo­ple whose faith is, if all reme­dies for seek­ing jus­tice fails, then tak­ing to arms is just and pi­ous. They are In­di­a’s best de­fend­ers if In­dia can be just to them, they are their own de­fend­ers if in­jus­tice is done to them.

It’s im­por­tant to rec­og­nize that tra­di­tion­ally in Pun­jab the po­lice is a ve­hi­cle of in­jus­tice and cor­rup­tion. In the best of times, it was re­strained be­cause of the po­lit­i­cal process. In the name of ter­ror­ism, the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment re­lied ex­clu­sively on this arm alone not re­al­iz­ing that this very arm is mak­ing it every day harder to gov­ern. Vendetta must be done if it is for jus­tice!

No won­der every po­lit­i­cal fig­ure who knows Pun­jab, de­mands that let those things be done on which every­body agrees. Let peo­ple be pun­ished who have com­mit­ted the car­nage of 1984. Let the po­lice of­fi­cials be pun­ished who have killed young men to make their big house big­ger.

Let silent bu­reau­crats be pun­ished who have been silent when it was their duty to speak out. Let those politi­cians be pun­ished who used peo­ple like cards to play games of blood.

Jus­tice is tested only when it is dis­pensed even to so­ci­ety’s worst mem­bers. Jus­tice has mean­ing, and the law takes a just mean­ing when it is also avail­able to the law­break­ers. To the law-abid­ing per­son, the law does not mean much. Law is not tested when a peace­ful per­son is al­lowed to pro­ceed in his life un­per­turbed.

For­mer Di­rec­tor-Gen­eral of Po­lice Mr Rus­tam jee warns again and again, through his ar­ti­cles, that do not fid­dle with the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, strengthen it, be­cause it is the foun­tain­head of sta­bil­ity and jus­tice in so­ci­ety. If the Irish prob­lem has not gone out of hand in Eng­land, it is be­cause the sys­tem of crim­i­nal jus­tice is not choked but still pro­vides jus­tice even to its worst of­fend­ers.

Jus­tice is tested only when it is dis­pensed even to so­ci­ety’s worst mem­bers. Jus­tice has mean­ing, and the law takes a just mean­ing when it is also avail­able to the law­break­ers. To the law-abid­ing per­son, the law does not mean much. Law is not tested when a peace­ful per­son is al­lowed to pro­ceed in his life un­per­turbed.

Law is ex­am­ined when its worst en­emy is also treated law­fully. And that is jus­tice. It is not com­monly re­al­ized that when in­no­cent per­sons are killed, it is very tempt­ing for the state to kill an­other in­no­cent and pro­claim that guilty have been killed. The law too wants to kill them but af­ter as­cer­tain­ing that they are the guilty ones, and af­ter giv­ing them the op­por­tu­nity to prove that they are not. The court trial is noth­ing but an at­tempt to find out that the per­son go­ing to be hanged is ac­tu­ally the man who should be hanged or some poor soul caught in the web of po­lit­i­cal cor­rup­tion and cir­cum­stance.

One thing which must be ur­gently done is to pro­vide jus­tice of a very rou­tine na­ture. Let no man es­cape the god­desses of neme­sis by virtue of his po­si­tion and rank and riches. We can all be par­tic­i­pants in this process of im­part­ing jus­tice by sim­ply speak­ing against the un­just act. Abra­ham Lin­col­n’s words are prophetic: “To sin by si­lence when one should protest makes cow­ards of men.”

Let them who dare, speak and speak again to right the wrongs of man.

Jus­tice Ajit Singh Bains passed away on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022. He was a hu­man rights cham­pion through­out his life.